Jury hears how alleged rape victim was attacked in Leeds park

l

A YOUNG woman described the moment she claims she was pinned to the floor and raped in a park in Leeds.

A court heard Michael Cardy is alleged to have put his hand over the woman’s mouth to stop her from screaming as he carried out the sex attack. The jury at Leeds Crown Court was played a recording of the woman being interviewed by a police officer shortly after the alleged incident in September last year.

The woman described how she caught a taxi with Cardy to the Lovell Park area of Leeds after a night out in the city centre.

She told the officer Cardy had persuaded her to go into the park and offered her cocaine, which she refused.

The woman described how she could remember Cardy forcing himself on her and trying to remove some of her clothing.

She said: “I just remember when I started screaming that it was going through my mind ‘just let him do it and it will be over’.

“That is when I knew I didn’t want him to and that is when I started screaming and he put his hand over my mouth.” The officer asked: “Did you consent to sexual activity?” She replied: “No”.

The officer then asked: “How sure are you?” She replied: “One hundred per cent sure.”

Cardy, 24, of Allerton Grange Croft, Roundhay, pleads not guilty to two charges of rape and one of assault by penetration. The prosecution claims Cardy carried out two sex attacks on different women in separate incidents, 36 days apart, in August and September last year.

It is alleged Cardy carried out the first attack on a woman aged in her forties as she slept in bed in her own flat in Hunslet. The court has heard the woman awoke to find Cardy on top of her.